Afraid for the safety of its students, the University of Michigan is sending police officers to Saturday’s football game with Ohio State and giving out a cell-phone number that its fans can use for police "support," officials said yesterday.
They also are advising Michigan students to: avoid High Street, carpool to the game in a vehicle that doesn’t have Michigan plates, keep the wraps on Michigan clothing until inside the stadium, stay in groups, stay low-key and don’t fight, even if harassed.
The e-mail, sent Monday by Michigan’s dean of students, alumni association president and student-body president, tells students to call 911 "if at any time you feel unsafe," but it notes that fans can call the University of Michigan police with nonemergency concerns.
OSU Assistant Police Chief Rick Amweg said his department is working with the Michigan officers to promote safety, but he said the quickest responses likely will be from Ohio-based units.
"So if they feel more comfortable talking with the University of Michigan law-enforcement officers, certainly they can use that number," but they should understand that could delay any police response, Amweg said.
No one would say how many Michigan officers will be working the game, but OSU spokesman Jim Lynch said it will be a very small number compared with the Ohio-based police.
Ohio State is not trying to keep people from High Street. To the contrary, Lynch said the university is looking forward to showing off the new South Campus Gateway retail and entertainment complex.
"I think they’ll be impressed, and I think it would be a great place to take your family or fans after the game or before the game," Lynch said. "We’re not telling anybody to avoid a certain area. We’re promoting that our fans will be the best fans around and will treat everybody with respect."
Faced with fan problems that have ranged from overzealous ribbing to full-blown rioting, Ohio State began a campaign this fall to encourage its fans to act with class and dignity. Athletics Director Gene Smith said in September that if the campaign couldn’t change the behavior of what he called the 1 percent of the troublemakers in the crowd, he hoped it would empower the other 99 percent of OSU fans to alert police quickly to any problems.
But Michigan fans who have been to the game in Columbus said they’ll be expecting the worst. Matt Stout, president of the University of Michigan Club of Central Ohio, said some Ohio State fans are out of control. One got in his mother’s face and shouted obscenities because she was wearing a navy-colored coat at a Michigan game. And his mother’s a Buckeyes fan.
"It’s unfortunate," said Stout, a Columbus resident. "I know the majority of Ohio State fans aren’t like that. … I think it goes back to when Woody Hayes preached the hatred of Michigan. It almost seems a lot of times like they hate Michigan more than they like Ohio State."
The 3:30 p.m. kickoff is just going to make matters worse, Stout said.
"It allows for 3 1 /2 more hours to get ‘lubricated’ " than noon games, and it will be dark when the game ends, he said.
Steve Grafton, president of the Michigan Alumni Association, said he took his wife and children to the game in 2004 and, for the first time at a sporting event, feared for their safety.
"What we’re trying to do is help students who have student tickets and are coming to the game," said Grafton, one of the three who signed the e-mail warning to Wolverines fans. He said that Michigan students may join their alumni tailgate free with a valid student ID. The e-mail originally was sent to students, but a slightly different copy has circulated saying it was to all season-ticket holders.
"We wouldn’t send it to season-ticket holders because it just kind of rubs in their face that they couldn’t get tickets," Grafton said.
